Networks that transport data may require timing, e.g., digital pulse cycles at precise accuracy. Such timing can be provided by a Building Integrated Timing Supply (BITS) clock. Few network providers, however, are able to provide external BITS clock generators at their traffic add/drop locations to add/drop data traffic synchronously. Prior approaches to this problem include networks based on simplistic ring architectures, which have a natural linearity to optical traffic flow, but mesh optical networks are more complex and mandate the need for advanced tools and apparatuses to implement and validate network timing distribution. Other approaches to distribute timing are based on a singular approach of using an optical channel carrying synchronous network traffic to derive BITS timing at a remote add/drop node and/or using dedicated traffic demands for carrying timing. These approaches are not able to account for network outages due to fiber cuts and their impact on the network timing distribution.